McCOWAN o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2006-03-04 published
VARLEY,
Olive
J.
(SMITH)
On Friday, March 3, 2006 at Hillside Manor, Olive J.
(SMITH)
VARLEY, formerly of Tuckersmith Twp. and Seaforth in her 86th
year. Beloved wife of the late Arthur
VARLEY (1996.) Dear mother
of John VARLEY of Saskatchewan. Loving grandmother of Kevin and
Carolyn VARLEY,
Wartburg,
Sheri and Mark
FITZGERALD, Ottawa and
three great-grandchildren Melissa, Jessica and Tara. Remembered
by her daughter-in-law Elizabeth
VARLEY,
Exeter.
Loved sister
and sister-in-law of Hazel and Bill
CLEARY,
London,
Gerald and
Sylvia SMITH,
Exeter and Laurie
SMITH, Kitchener.
Predeceased
by her parents Emmerson and Edna
(DESJARDINE)
SMITH, three sisters
June and Frank
McCOWAN,
Mona
NORRIS and Marjorie and George
VARLEY,
and her brother John
SMITH.
Family will receive Friends at the
Whitney-Ribey Funeral Home, 87 Goderich Street West, Seaforth
on Sunday from 7-9 p.m., where the funeral service will be held
on Monday, March 6 at 11: 00 a.m. Reverend John
GOULD will officiate.
Interment Maitlandbank Cemetery, Seaforth. Memorial donations
to Northside United Church would be appreciated. Condolences
at www.whitneyribeyfuneralhome.com
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McCOWAN o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2006-03-14 published
STANFORD,
Frederick
George
Age 84, passed away peacefully at the Stratford General Hospital
on Saturday, March 11, 2006. Fred was born in England June 20,
1921, a son of the late William and Florence
STANFORD. He apprenticed
as a watchmaker in England and joined the Royal Air Force where
he worked as an Instrument Technician from 1940-1945 in Britain
and Gananoque. After the war he immigrated to Canada and worked
as a Watchmaker and Jeweler in Saint Thomas and London until his
retirement. He lived the past twelve years at Woodland Towers
and Spruce Lodge. Beloved husband for 62 years of Maxine
(WHALEY.)
Loving father of Fred and his wife Ruth, Calgary, John and his
wife Brenda, R.R.#2 Baltimore, Michael and his wife Kathy, Wisconsin,
Heather and her husband John
McCOWAN,
Bayfield,
Janice and her
husband Steve
HAYHURST,
London. He will be sadly missed by his
fourteen grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. Also survived
by three brothers and one sister in England. Friends and relatives
may call at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, 25 St. Andrew Street,
Stratford on Tuesday, March 14, from 12 noon until the time of
the service at 2 p.m. Rev. Dr. Hugh
JONES will officiate. As
expressions of sympathy, memorial donations may be made to the
Canadian Diabetes Association, the Heart and Stroke Foundation
or to the charity of one's choice through the W.G. Young Funeral
Home, 430 Huron Street, Stratford.
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McCOWAN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2006-03-18 published
EMMERSON,
Mel
Peacefully, at Markham-Stouffville Hospital, on March 17, 2006,
in his 87th year. Beloved husband of Margaret
(EMPRINGHAM-
HOOVER)
and the late Margaret
(McCOWAN.)
Loving dad of June (Fred)
VLIEK,
Faye (Lloyd)
RICHARDSON, Wayne (Debra), and Blair (Paula). Proud
grandpa of 12 and great-grandpa of 9. Step-dad of Lois (Doug)
ANDREWS,
Murray
(Kim)
EMPRINGHAM. Dear brother to Margaret (late
Fred) JEMMETT, Lorne (Isobel) and Murray (Ev), and the late Leland
(Jackie). Friends may call at East Ridge Church, Stouffville,
on Monday 2-5 and 7-9 p.m. Service Tuesday at 1: 30 p.m. Interment
Stouffville Cemetery. If desired, memorial donations may be made
to the Parkview Home Building Fund.
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McCOWN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2006-04-28 published
Pat MARSDEN,
Broadcaster: (1936-2006)
Canadian Football League play-by-play specialist and radio host
lived life large. He stiffed a Nevada casino over a gambling
debt, took a swing at his boss and was bailed out of jail by
Brian MULRONEY
By James CHRISTIE with files from William
HOUSTON,
Page S9
It was part of Pat
MARSDEN's profession, as a caller of football
play-by-plays and a radio host, to be a storyteller. But the
Ottawa-born broadcast star didn't just tell entertaining tales
he often starred in them.
Citing his Irish heritage, Mr.
MARSDEN was alternately provocative,
funny, obstinate, sentimental, pugnacious and -- until he stopped
imbibing in recent years -- always willing to buy an adversary
a drink while he hammered away with his opinions. "He had to
get out of here because he couldn't get a rum and coke," his
wife, T.A.
MARSDEN, told radio station The Fan 590 yesterday
morning from Sunnybrook Hospital, minutes after his death.
An eight-year stint as co-host of The Fan morning show was the
last stop in a career of more than four decades behind the microphone
or in front of the camera. Mr.
MARSDEN even parodied sports broadcasters
as a television actor, sporting a slicked-down comb-over, a loud
plaid jacket and talking in exaggerated tones as he interviewed
calamity-prone stuntman Super Dave Osborne (a.k.a. Bob Einstein)
in a 1992 series.
He is best known for his play-by-play coverage of the Canadian
Football League telecasts and Grey Cup championships in the 1970s
and 1980s. He also worked as host of the 1972 Canada-Soviet Union
hockey summit series telecasts. His longest stint was 19 years
with CTV's Toronto flagship station
CFTO, where he had a reputation
for marching to his own beat. In a 1986 Globe and Mail interview,
Mr. MARSDEN said bluntly, "Nobody tells me what to do and nobody
tells me what to say, on or off the air. I developed a thick
skin a long time ago and I don't care how people would like me
to act. I won't be dull and I'll always have self respect." He
declared that he would always be himself.
"He did it his own way," said long-time colleague Fergie Olver,
who knew Mr.
MARSDEN could make connections at the high and low
ends of the social scale. "He was the only guy who was thrown
in jail in Regina on a Friday night, and then he went to Montreal
where he was thrown in jail again, and [former prime minister]
Brian MULRONEY bailed him out."
Indeed, when Mr.
MARSDEN signed off for the last time in May
of 2004, Mr.
MULRONEY phoned the station from Europe to congratulate
him on his career.
Pat MARSDEN was an Ottawa native who started a career in radio
as director of
CKOY. He went on to become the long-time sports
director of
CFTO, returning to radio at
CFRB after a stormy exchange
with CFTO news and public-affairs vice-president Ted
STEUBING
over a technical problem. Mr.
MARSDEN reportedly lunged across
Mr. STEUBING's desk to scuffle with the boss.
He also worked with Bill Watters on TSN's The Sports Page. "Whenever
I was with him, it would be 30 seconds and I'd either be laughing
at me or laughing at him, or with him," said Mr. Watters, who
had seen the lighter side of the broadcaster.
After Mr. MARSDEN retired and moved to Florida, Fan 590 executives
sought him out in 1994 to fight a desperate ratings battle for
Toronto listeners. He'd been out of the market some eight years,
but The Fan program director Nelson
MILLMAN said the station
had pursued him to gain credibility for a new format.
"We'd come through two seasons of labour stoppages in sports&hellip
we were floundering. We had Bob
McCOWN in the afternoons and
we needed to fix the morning show. Pat gave us some stability
in 1994 and 1995. He was the right guy in the right place at
the right time. He was a character like no other and he represented
sport in this town."
At The Fan, Mr.
MARSDEN at first paired with the hip and younger
John DERRINGER.
Both men were from the right side of the political
spectrum, both had ties to the United States and an antipathy
for prime minister Jean Chrétien.
Yet their chemistry was not great. Mr.
MARSDEN had come from
an era of radio crooners and crop reports, while Mr.
DERRINGER
from a culture of rock radio. There was more dissonance than
charm in their old-young mix and Mr.
DERRINGER ultimately departed.
He was replaced by Don
LANDRY, another young foil for Mr.
MARSDEN.
"Pat and Don were much more opposites politically and in outlook
toward life," said Mr.
MILLMAN. "
That made for better chemistry
than someone who often agreed with Pat's political outlook. When
sparks fly, that's entertainment."
Mr. LANDRY's comedic aptitude lightened the mood and ratings
began to climb for an odd couple that could laugh at each other
and at themselves. "Half the people loved it, half asked me 'why
do you pick on Pat so much, '? Mr.
LANDRY said. "Good chemistry
or bad chemistry is a question of taste, but he was loved. By
now, he's probably found Pierre Trudeau and is bawling him out
for what he did as prime minister."
That scenario would be a stretch of the imagination. Mr.
MARSDEN
and Mr. Trudeau wouldn't fit in each other's version of heaven.
Hell, possibly.
"Nobody's perfect, but nobody wore his imperfection as well as
Pat MARSDEN,"
Mr.
DERRINGER said. "The smile, the laugh, the
ability to keep things on an even keel was always an inspiration."
Mr. MARSDEN commuted from his Florida home for the first few
years of his Fan 590 job, rooming in Toronto weekdays and flying
home weekends to the United States, always returning with gripes
about Canadian gasoline prices, the non-functioning escalators
at Pearson Airport and former Mr. Chretien's lack of support
for U. S foreign policy. Later, Mr.
MARSDEN and his family eventually
moved back to Toronto.
The station opted not to renew his contract in May 2004. Rogers
Communications, which owns the station, had the option of picking
up three more years on a five-year pact that has been paying
him $300,000 annually, but declined. They paid him off with six
months remaining in his 2004 contract and Pat
MARSDEN didn't
complain.
"Getting up at 4 o'clock is so tiring, you can't function properly.
I'm not at all disappointed.
"If they don't want you, they don't want you. I'm finished with
the business. It's like you don't matter any more. That's fine.
No use worrying about it. You take what comes along in life.'"
Mr. MARSDEN lived life large, enjoyed a party, loved his rum
and his outings to casinos. In 1981, he managed to borrow $30,000
(U.S.) from the owners of the casino at The Dunes Las Vegas hotel
in Nevada and signed a series of markers when his money ran out.
He then left three cheques, two of them postdated. Back in Toronto,
he stopped payment on the latter pair. The casino owners took
him to an Ontario District Court -- and lost. Judge James
TROTTER
said that Nevada's gambling laws and demand for payment were
"unenforceable in Ontario," and that Mr.
MARSDEN's cheques were
an "illegal consideration" under Ontario's Gaming Act.
Gambler though he was, Mr.
MARSDEN knew he had no chance of beating
cancer. He was diagnosed after visiting his doctor about a pain
in his lower back. Lung cancer was found and it had spread into
his bones. He had been a smoker since a young child "but I have
no regrets. I'm 69 and I've had a good life with lots of laughs
and lots of Friends. Lots of great memories."
"I started smoking when I was four years old," he once said in
an interview with The Globe and Mail's William
HOUSON. "
Somebody
said to me, 'Christ, where the hell did you grow up, in Mississippi?'
No, but I had an old uncle who thought it was hilarious, as he
and his pals sat around the kitchen table having a beer, if I
would come in and have a smoke with them. That's when I started.
I never quit."
While in hospital, he received phone calls from generations of
broadcast colleagues and sports reporters. He was visited by
Leo Cahill (former Toronto Argonauts coach), and Scotty Bowman
(retired National Hockey League coach) and
by Brian KILREA, the
long-time coach of the major-junior 67's hockey team in Ottawa,
where Mr. MARSDEN grew up.
"The only thing I can say is, don't feel sorry for me," he said.
"I've had a terrific life and a terrific wife and great children,
and I'm delighted with the way my life has gone.
"I would have liked for it to have been a little longer, but,
you know, you reap what you sow."
Pat MARSDEN was born in Ottawa, November 8, 1936, and died of
lung cancer in Toronto yesterday. He leaves his wife, T.A., daughter
Taylor, son Connor, and three grown children from his first marriage:
Mike, Patti-Lee, and Ruth Mary.
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